I note with some amusement the sentence:

"In entertaining and informative prose, he documents his transformation from just the sort of kook I was in the 1980s into somebody with a much more practical perspective."

The use of the past tense is incorrect inasmuch as you are still one of the kookiest--though sanest--people I know. As best I know, your only deficits are in knowing the difference between what is funny and what is not, how to tell a joke, and ... wait for it ... timing.

Sincerely,

Miss Anna Canno Punner